Photo Borders: A Quick, Free Way to Gussy Up Your Pics Fast

When it comes to photo apps, the iTunes app store has tons of options. That’s why the best new photo apps we find tend to be free. This week I had the pleasure of reviewing Photo Borders, a free photo framing app from Decosoft that helps you put just the right border to your favorite shots, then share them with ease.

Features:

The new Photo Borders app has several sterling qualities. It’s non-existent price tag is just one of them. The app comes with 18 customizable photo frames. They’re organized by topic: basic, grunge and antique to be specific. That’s a sizable amount for a free app. Of course, there’s more to be had if you’re so inclined, 15 to be precise, but more about that after the cut.

Each frame you choose can be shaded almost any color imaginable, thanks to a unique set of color editing tools. You can choose a shade from the color wheel, then you can adjust that color even more with a shade scale.

Photo Borders lets you add frames to photos from your iPhone camera roll or capture new images. When you’re done, your Photo Borders creations can be exported via clipboard, email, Twitter or Facebook. The save or “creation” process does take a few moments, which was surprising. Otherwise, it’s a pretty straightforward app.

Layout & Design:

Photo Borders

Once you’ve selected or captured a photo to frame, the app is organized in a simple four tab design. One for the frame style, one for the frame color, one for the app home screen and a final one for the saving and exporting process. Yes, since the app’s free it’s also supported by advertisements. Ads stay simple and uniform and are regulated to the top of the screen in a banner style.

There’s nothing horribly interesting about the app’s design work. I do like the instant preview of the style and color you select, but otherwise, it’s a bit unsurprising.

Overall Value:

It’s hard to argue with free, folks. That’s one of the reasons this app gets a higher than average rating in this department. If you’re going to have a simple, photo augmenting app out there, free’s the way to go. As I mentioned earlier, there is an additional in-app purchase option that nets you 15 additional frame styles, but the built in styles are pretty nice. And, if you find yourself using the app all the time, the additional styles only cost $.99, so it’s a simple decision to grab them up too.

Photo Borders isn’t a huge game changer or even a new idea. But it does complete one unique aspect of photo editing in an extremely efficient way and with a bit of style.

Photo Borders

Photo Borders iPhone app requires iOS 4.3 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. A small expedite fee was paid by the developer to speed up the publication of this review.